When pyramidal neurons lock, when they respond chaotically, and when they like to synchronize

We give an overview on the locking properties of perturbed regularly firing pyramidal neurons, as a function of perturbation strength, self-spiking frequency and perturbation frequency. For inhibitory perturbations, instead of locking chaotic response emerges for a whole range of parameters. This suggests that global synchronization on the set of inhibitory connections may easily be achieved. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.